When the Meat Market art gallery leaves Dupont Circle’s 17th Street in the next few months, it will be at least the third business to leave the historic gay enclave to migrate east in the past 16 months.

The longtime gay mecca has morphed into a more diverse residential and retail corridor in recent years. While the street struggles to define itself, the edgier gay businesses have followed their clientele to the upstart 14th Street NW corridor, leaving vacant 17th Street storefronts and quieter sidewalk cafes in their wake.

“I don’t think there’s any vision,” said Rob Halligan, a former Dupont neighborhood official. “How do we drive foot traffic, who do we appeal to, what’s our target market?”

With its main anchor, Safeway, now facing competition from a nearby Harris Teeter in Adams Morgan and Trader Joe’s in the West End — not to mention Logan Circle’s Whole Foods — there’s less to draw shoppers and diners to 17th Street.

To be sure, there are still businesses opening on 17th Street. “Really, I don’t see a problem,” said business owner Dave Perruzza, citing a string of pharmacies, hair salons and yogurt shops that just opened or will soon open. The yogurt shop, Mr. Yogato, often has a line out the door.

Perruzza and business partner, Eric Little, own three gay bars on 17th Street — JR’s, Cobalt and 30 Degrees — and they’re opening a new restaurant at 17th and R streets later this month. They decided to open Level One after 16 months of failed negotiations to sell Cobalt and 30 Degrees and the accompanying lease rights for restaurant space vacated when Food Bar closed in November 2006.

In the meantime, another gay landmark, the Universal Gear clothing store, packed up last November and moved its wares to a wide-windowed retail spot facing 14th.

At the time, Universal Gear’s owner, David Franco, told a local newspaper that Universal Gear’s departure would be the “nail in the coffin” for 17th Street. From his corporate offices just up 17th Street, Franco now says it was simply the right move. “We saw the eastward movement over the past five years,” Franco said.

“We used to know how well we were doing by the number of Safeway bags our customers would store behind the counter,” Franco said. “As time went on, we saw fewer and fewer Safeway bags, because people weren’t shopping there — they were shopping at Whole Foods.”

Seventeenth Street’s charm — its small residential scale — worked against businesses, Franco said. “You can only fit so many businesses on a small street, and there’s not enough available space to draw other businesses.”

Fourteenth Street’s residential density also bodes well for the success of its fledgling businesses. “There was a concerted effort to bring in high-density development,” Halligan said. “That means lots of bodies with more money to spend.”

New restaurants that have tried to break onto 17th Street haven’t always had an easy time. Jamie Leeds, a former New York City chef, spent $20,000 battling five neighbors in front of the liquor board before she was allowed to open Hank’s Oyster Bar in 2005. Last month, Hank’s won a prestigious restaurant association award as Washington’s “best neighborhood gathering place.”

Contrast that with 14th Street’s newcomers. “We got a very, very warm welcome from the neighbors, and nice support from the surrounding businesses, as well,” said Bill Todd, who manages ACKC, a “cocoa gallery” next to Universal Gear. “They understand the hurdles a small business has to overcome when they first open.”

Among the remaining businesses on 17th, there seems to be disagreement about how to fix some of the problems that plague the corridor. The city has earmarked federal grant money for a streetscape project to give 17th a new look. Construction was slated for October, but is now more likely to begin in 2010, said Karyn LeBlanc, a spokeswoman for the D.C. Department of Transportation The streetscape renovation plan was written nearly 20 years ago. One nod to the gay community, a rainbow-themed sidewalk mosaic, has been axed, LeBlanc said.

The city has also given Dupont a one-year $100,000 grant to clean up its streets and alleys, and business groups are working to improve parking options. Along 17th Street, even that has been subject to debate.

“We already clean the streets, and who’s going to pay $5 to park to come get a $5 breakfast,” said George Mallios, whose family has owned Trio’s and Fox & Hound for 58 years. “I don’t even advertise anymore, because people from outside the neighborhood aren’t going to come.”

Local leaders say 17th Street’s businesses and residents are finally coming together to work out problems. “The residents and businesses used to only intersect in the [liquor board] hearing room, and that wasn’t healthy,” said Joel Lawson, president of the Dupont Circle Citizens Association. “But, with the worsening economy, we’re very worried about independent businesses on 17th, and we’re all in the same boat now.”

And those neighbors who protested Hank’s Oyster Bar? They’ve since been spotted enjoying dinner on Hank’s tiny sidewalk cafe.

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